


In Harmony

by opalmatrix



Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: F/F, Female Characters, Female Friendship, Friendship, Music, Yuletide, Yuletide 2010
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-24
Updated: 2010-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 01:59:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/pseuds/opalmatrix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A brief meeting between old friends creates something beautiful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Harmony

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Edonohana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edonohana/gifts).



> A Yuletide Treat for [**Edonohana**](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Edonohana). Prompt: "Please give me the awesome, dragon-riding Mirrim who should have been ... I love her with Menolly, either as friends or romantically ... ." Thanks to my beta [**smillaraaq**](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Smillaraaq/pseuds/Smillaraaq) for helping me run a tight ship (unintentional pun, but you can take it if you like it)!

Mirrim strode through the corridors of the Harper Hall behind her excited apprentice guide, one green fire lizard perched on each shoulder, and brown Tolly fluttering alongside. The child banged on the fourth door along and announced, grandly, "Dragonrider for Journeyman Menolly! "

"Thank you, Terin," said a familiar voice, and there was a sound of footsteps. As the door swung open, Menolly started to add, courteously, "Please do come in - oh! It's you!"

Menolly's long, light-boned face was astonished and pleased. MIrrim felt warmed through and through. "Yes, me. When I heard that a courier was needed for the Harper Hall, I volunteered at once. I was just hoping to get a chance to say hello - I had no idea that you were my actual business."

"Well, I have this document that needs to go to Harper Candler at Nabol right away. I'm meant to include three copies of my latest song as well, and I'm working on the last one. I hate to say this, Mirrim, but you'll have to wait a bit - and not say anything, either, or I'll never finish. Not much of a visit, I'm afraid."

"I'll manage."

"Terin, run off to the kitchen and have them put up a waymeal for the dragonrider."

The little apprentice grinned and skipped from the room. Mirrim watched the child go. Something about that pert face ... "That one's a girl, isn't she?"

"Yes, Terin's a girl. So is Gilva. Things are changing, just a little. Hush, now."

Menolly was using the only chair in the room at her worktable, so Mirrim sat on the bed. Reppa, Lok, and Tolly settled comfortably around her. The room was small and sparsely furnished, but cozy on this cold day, with a handsome fur on the bed, a small window with a good view of the Hold, a brazier, an old but well-polished press, and a variety of instruments, in cases on the floor or hanging on the wall. Mirrim saw multiple pipes, a carved wooden flute, a small drum, a lap harp, some sort of wooden wind instrument she didn't recognize, and Menolly's gitar. It was pleasant to be able to sit here quietly, with a friend, while actually on business so that no one could chide her that she shouldn't be doing it. So much of Mirrim's life had been tied up with noisy groups of people, in the hold and now in the weyrling classes, that it was only recently that she'd come to realize that periods of solitude left her refreshed and more calm.

Of course, she wasn't quite alone at the moment. And this was even better, in its way.

"There," said Menolly, and blew gently on the last few words she had written. "It's still damp. You'll have to wait a bit more, but at least now we can talk."

"I wish I could write songs," said Mirrim, impulsively. "People will be singing your songs for tens - hundreds - of years. Everything I've done has always been eaten or dirtied or disarranged in a day or two ... a nice, clean room doesn't last."

Menolly laughed. "But where would we be without good meals or a comfortable bed? Still, I hear what you say. Have you ever tried writing a song?"

"Menolly! I wouldn't even know where to start!"

"Well ... try this. Think of something you really like to do, or a place you really like to be."

"I guess I can do that," said Mirrim, slowly. For a moment, her mind was blank, and she felt embarrassed in the face of Menolly's earnest half-smile. Then she remembered the lovely little series of waterfalls she'd discovered in the mountains of Lemos. On a hot summer's day, there was nothing more delightful than the pool between the third and fourth falls. It was just big enough for Path, Mirrim, and the firelizards, and there was a flat bit of rock nearby, ideal for sunning. The fire lizards loved to dive through the cool veils of water as it fell into the pool.

"That's it," said Menolly, softly. "Now, just let what you're seeing come out ... hum a little, sing, tap your fingers - whatever you're feeling."

Mirrim felt silly, but she hummed under her breath. It seemed to be a droning little sound she was making, but Menolly started to vocalize along with it, and Mirrim realized that the sound that she herself was making was rippling like the water in the pool. The three fire lizards perched on the bed sat up, staring at her intently, and Menolly's entire fair suddenly burst into the room, hovering and fluttering and looking at Mirrim in much the same way. Mirrim flushed and stopped. "Oh, shells. I must sound awful."

"No, I think they're just wondering why you're not making more noise. Listen, this is what you sounded like." Menolly picked up her gitar, made a few adjustments to the strings, and played the measures that Mirrim had been singing. Beauty started to sing along with it, her thin little voice sweet and true over the gitar notes. Tolly looked back and forth between Menolly and Mirrim, and then threw himself into the air, swooping and darting dangerously close to the ceiling. "What ... " began Mirrim, and then she realized that he was miming the way that her three would dive through the falls.

"Well?" asked Menolly, still playing the little water-rippling tune.

"Well, what?"

"What comes next? Isn't that what Tolly's trying to say?"

"I guess he is!" Mirrim watched him, remembering what the three of them looked like, diving through the water and then the air, sprays of droplets trailing behind them, and managed to hum a little more. Menolly added it to the first part of the tune, and then played the whole thing through again, this time with her thumb picking out a bass line to go with the melody.

"Why, that's beautiful!" Mirrim exclaimed.

"That's yours," said Menolly. "It sounds very watery, in a nice way, and the fire lizards were enjoying the water too. Is that right?"

"Exactly! It's a place with waterfalls and a pool, up in Lemos."

"Well, I want to play with it some more, and I know you have to go. I think a flute would suit this. And maybe some bells. But next time you come, I'll have a very nice bit of instrumental music to send out. 'Falls of Lemos,' by Mirrim, Path's Rider, and Journeyman Harper Menolly."

"Menolly! You wouldn't!"

"Whyever not? I know a number of audiences that would eat this up. In fact, it could even be a dance tune."

"You're never serious!"

"I am, quite often, and this time certainly."

Mirrim's fire lizards cuddled up next to her. Reppa was crooning, and the sound echoed the little tune that they had just made together.

"My name ... on a song."

"Only if you want it. But you were talking about making something, Mirrim." Menolly leaned her gitar carefully against her writing table and reached for a fresh sheet of music paper.

Mirrim laughed, suddenly, thinking of the weyrlings and the Holder girls dancing at the next gather - to a tune she had helped create. "All right! Let's do it! Let them hear my voice!"

Menolly laughed too, and then hugged her. "That they will, Mirrim Tune-Crafter!"

 


End file.
